Center was not an issue for the Leafs.
They let 36 goal scoring winger with speed and size James Van Riemsdyk leave on free agency day and they signed a 37 goal scoring center without speed and size in John Tavares.
And you have to love the Toronto fans and media just glossing over the loss of their best winger JVR. He was a turd on a stick! Tavares had so so many more goals than JVR.
You could make the argument JVR is a better fit for Toronto than Tavares because of his size and speed. But it's like the guy never even played there now. Unbelievable.
But reality is the Leafs still have the same problem they had last year and the last 50+ years - goaltending and defense.
It reminds one of the mid-90s Canucks when they had Pavel Bure, Alexandre Mogilny and added Mark Messier. Goals were not a problem. They needed a Number 1 D man and a goalie. Goals were never the problem then for Vancouver as they were not for Toronto now.
The Toronto Maple Leafs are a warning for all rebuilding teams - don't shoot the wad before you're ready to take a run.
Do what the Buffalo Sabres did - stay in the hunt for everything you need in the NHL draft and don't DON'T do anything stupid until you get what you need.
The Sabres added stud franchise blueliner Rasmus Dahlin to stud center Jack Eichel and stud center Casey Mittlestadt.
Sabres are already better than the Toronto Maples Leafs at center with Eichel and Mittlestadt - it's not even close with all due respect to Matthews and Tavares.
Eichel and Mittlestad can fly.
And the Sabres are way younger.
So the Sabres have it all - the strong centers the strong blueline. You can grab a stud goalie on the free agent market as we saw in Las Vegas with Marc AndreFleury.
The Leafs blew it.
But that's what they do. Go too early.
So now with the Leafs in cap hell next year - what do you do to correct the problem on the blueline and in net? Certainly they'll have to package Mitch Marner and Willem Nylander for a good D man - but who will want those two? If Marner and Nylander don't play with Matthews - can they even play in the NHL? Probably not. And both guys are going to put the Leafs in Salary Cap Hell especially when they have to $14 million Auston Matthews.
And that's the problem with the Toronto Maple Leafs - they need 4 defensemen and a goalie.
Their goalie had a GAA that was barely in the top 30 in the NHL.
It's a huge problem. So how do you be like the Washington Capitals?
Well, you draft a franchise player. And then you add 6 blueliners who can all move the puck and have size and are terrific defensively. You add a world class coach in Barry Trotz (sorry I'm not a Mike Babcock fan). And you draft a world class center Evegny Kuznetsov.
Toronto can't do that in the time frame allotted.
They're a now team because of the Tavares signing. He's not getting younger or faster.
And since you have Matthews and Tavares you don't have room at center.
It's the blueline the Leafs needed to fix.
Van Reimsdyk is every bit as good a player as Tavares. They were 1 goal apart. Goals matter. Goals are the only thing that matters. Assists are for losers.
DO YOU PUT THE PUCK IN THE NET?
This "trade" by the Leafs does nothing to address more goals. It's exactly the same.
The problem is what do you do with the D?
If the Leafs had traded for Brent Burns in San Jose - now they'd be a Stanley Cup contender. Or even an older Duncan Keith. Or if they somehow landed a P.K. Subbhan. Or if they traded for an Erik Karlsson.
But without that Number 1 D man - the pressure on their blueline is going to continue to mount.
And so it's going to derail in a hurry in Toronto.
Will they make the playoffs? I think so.
But will they win in the playoffs? No.
Absolutely not.
Are they better equipped to handle the Tampa Bay Lightning? No. The Boston Bruins? No. The Washington Capitals? No. The Pittsburgh Penguins? Sure. But the Penguins' time is over.
And the clock is ticking for Toronto. They have a window of maybe 2 years before Buffalo blows their doors off.
They have 2 years before they realize they went too soon.
The Leafs really needed to be in the Rasmus Dahlin sweepstakes. They're not.
And so they're going to be good enough to avoid getting help in the draft unless they fluke out and draft a Keith in the second round. But the clock is ticking on them because the Sabres are coming loaded for bear.
I don't see a Stanley Cup contender in Toronto. I see a team headed for year 70 of a rebuild unfortunately.
Want more common sense hockey talk?
http://www.michaelmunro.ca/Hockey_Sucks.html
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